FleetConnect is an electronic fuel management system that allows users to refuel GSE quickly and easily, while also making all data relating to that fuelling readily accessible to customers for their own analysis
FleetConnect was developed by World Fuel Services, the global fuel logistics company headquartered in Miami, in partnership with Liquid Controls Group, an Illinois-based enterprise within the IDEX Corporation that specialises in flow meters. World Fuel Services recently created a new division dedicated to the GSE fuelling business because, says Dyke Chapman – global program manager for FleetConnect – “Nobody was really specialising in that area.”
“FleetConnect is a total fuel management system” that not only makes fleet refuelling simple and error-free but also collects and records data relating to all aspects of the GSE refuelling process, explains Frank Montalvo, Liquid Controls’ Group business line vice president, global aviation & government. A radio frequency identification (RFID) tag placed on the GSE served by FleetConnect identifies the vehicle concerned, the required fuel type and volume to be dispensed, making any errors in the refuelling process highly unlikely. The system also captures and records that data for billing purposes and for the customer’s own subsequent analysis. It avoids the need for any manual fuel ticketing documentation.
It makes fuel theft virtually impossible and can also be used to identify any fuel volumes wasted through spillage, Dyke points out. All the information is accessible by the customer on a secure website, the fuel delivery data having been transmitted at the point of pumping by a cellular or Wi-Fi modem in the GSE truck cab.
The information recorded can also be very useful in ways not directly related to fuel consumption, he notes. For example, GSE fleet operators can see from the data which vehicles are not being fuelled on a regular basis, thus allowing them to pinpoint possibly redundant or under-used GSE. It is also potentially invaluable information for fleet maintenance managers – the system offers insights into GSE unit workload based on fuel use, another important way of looking at the workload of units and allowing the creation of informed proactive maintenance schedules.
FleetConnect is in use with global on-airport players such as Swissport and ASIG. It is in action at more than 40 gateways across the US and, in some cases (Boston is just one example), it is used on all the mobile GSE fuelled on the ramp. FleetConnect is also in operation beyond the US, at Quito in Ecuador by Allied Aviation, for example. It went live in 2009 and is being promoted across the global World Fuels network as part of the fuel service provider’s wider fuel provision package.
A comparative product, FlightConnect, has also been developed by the partners to serve the aircraft refuelling segment. Although this tool only went live in 2014, ASIG has already deployed it at stations such as San Diego and San Francisco.
